Z
by Vexic929
Summary: A cute little story about a Wammy's kid my friend and I made up. Sorry to disappoint but there will be no Yaoi.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N** - A story involving a Wammy's kid my friend and I came up with. Not sure if I'll continue or what should happen next.

* * *

Failure. That one little word cut like a knife through the eight-year-old's mind. In his mind, that's what he was. He didn't seem to be good at anything other than art and that wasn't going to get him to the top. He was the last in line to become L's successor and while he didn't _really_ want to be number one he didn't want to be at the bottom of the list—no one did—because that left him at the bottom of the food chain no matter what—relentlessly put down and laughed at by the other kids. He sighed and layed his head down on the desk.

Matt walked through the halls, looking for a quiet, empty room where he could hide from Mello and play his video games in peace. He walked into the empty geography classroom and sat down in the teacher's computer chair. He glanced around the room and saw a boy sitting in a desk at the back of the classroom looking miserable. He sighed, realizing he wouldn't be able to play his game without being distracted and walked over to him.

"Hey, kid. What's up?"

The kid looked up at him with big green eyes.

"Nothing…" he mumbled looking at his hands. Matt frowned, something was definitely wrong.

"So…uh…what's your name?"

"Zach."

"Cool, I'm Matt, you new here?"

"Sorta, I've been here for about a month or so…"

"Oh, that's cool. So, are you gonna tell me what's wrong or am I gonna have to figure it out myself?"

Zach shrugged, "it's not really that important."

"Look, Zach, whatever's up is obviously bothering you a lot—it doesn't help anyone for you to be so depressed."

"It doesn't hurt anyone either—no one cares."

"Dude, if I didn't care I wouldn't be asking—trust me on this."

Zach looked at him for a minute.

"Do you really wanna know?"

"Yeah."

Zach sighed, "alright. I'm the last in line to be L's successor and nobody'll leave me alone about it. They all either tease me about it or ignore me completely. Even the teachers won't help; they're too busy with the smart kids."

Matt looked at him and shook his head.

"Oi! You don't know how much I wish I was in your position—I've practically been working for it, I don't wanna be L's successor! In my opinion you're lucky—no matter what the other kids think."

Zach blinked, "you're kidding. You're third in line and you're best friends with that scary kid who yells a lot and wants to be first. How can you not want to be first too?"

Matt laughed at that, "yeah, I guess he can be pretty scary but you're missing the point. It's not about what the other kids think—their opinions don't matter, it all depends on what you want to do."

"I still don't wanna be last though…"

"Fair enough…tell you what—I'll help you out. If you want, I'll tutor you in the subjects you're having trouble with—I'll get you out of that horrible position and in return you can stop caring about all that nonsense those kids are saying—ok?"

Zach nodded and smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2--sorry it's so short, I really tried to make it longer!! I swear!! ^^'

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"Why are you wasting your time with the little brat? He's not gonna learn anything!" Mello yelled to an exasperated Matt.

"I think he will, you just gotta give him a chance Mello, he's only eight and I_ just_ started tutoring him!"

"I still think you're wasting your time, you could be using the time you're spending on him to—"

"To do what Mello? Help you with one of your stupid schemes? To study for something so that I'll get a good score even though I don't give a crap about it? No thanks, this'll be much more productive."

Mello glared at him.

"Why do you even care about the kid? Why do you wanna help him so bad? What are you gonna get out of it?"

"_That kid_ has a name Mello, and Zach needs someone to be nice to him and to look up to—while I admit I'm probably one of the worst people to look up to I'm the only one willing to give him a chance. No one else seems to care about him and I know how it feels to be picked on so much. I'm not gonna get anything out of it but he'll be happy so I'll be happy."

"You're pathetic Matt. The kid just needs to toughen up, he's too weak—he's never gonna get anywhere in life if he feels sorry for himself all the time and you're not helping him by being so nice. Nice guys finish last."

As Mello finished his sentence Matt threw a punch that hit him square in the jaw and sent him reeling backwards.

"What the heck was that?!" Mello yelled.

Matt ignored him and stormed out of the room they shared and slammed the door.

~~~~Two Weeks Later~~~~

"Maaaatttt!"

Zach came flying down the hall with a paper in hand.

"Matt, MattMattMattMattMattMaaaatttt!"

Matt turned around right as Zach tackled him in a hug.

"Oof! Hey Zach, what's up?"

"I did it! You said I could do it and I did!"

"What did you do?"

"I got an A! I'll be the next rank in no time!"

"Wow! Great job Zach! I knew you could do it!"

Matt patted his head awkwardly and stood up—pulling Zach up with him.

"Thanks Matt, you're so cool—I wanna be just like you!"

Matt gave a nervous laugh.

"Trust me, you don't wanna be anything like me, I'm nothing but trouble."

Zach laughed and ran down the hall. Matt frowned, concerned that Zach wanted to be like him—he didn't want him to make the same mistakes he'd made.


	3. Chapter 3

Matt was sitting on his bed playing a video game when Mello came in, laughing hysterically.

"Dude, you have to see this, it's hilarious!"

Matt looked up at him for a minute before shrugging and turning back to his game.

"Matt! Put down that stupid game, you're gonna flip when you see!"

Matt put down his game just as someone knocked on the door to their room.

"Speak of the devil," Mello commented, smirking as he opened the door. In walked what looked like a miniature copy of Matt.

"Hi!" The copy said and Matt blinked for a second.

"Zach…why do you look like me?"

Zach giggled, "I told you I wanted to be just like you!"

"Zach…" Matt sighed and walked over to him.

"I'm flattered that you want to be like me but being me isn't all that great, trust me. (1)"

"But…you're the coolest person I know."

"Zach, you gotta find your own style. Look at everyone at Wammy's, is there anyone who looks and acts like anyone else?"

"The 'S' twins do…"

"They don't count. They're identical twins—though if you ask me they're more like clones."

Zach laughed.

"C'mon, let's go to your room to see if we can find something that suits your style. If not, we can see if we can convince Roger to take us shopping…or maybe Watari would be easier to convince, though finding a good time when he _wasn't_ on a case with L could prove to be a bit challenging."

Zach ran into his room and jumped on the bed, laughing. Matt smiled and walked over to the closet. When he opened it, however, he was attacked by an avalanche of clothes. Zach stopped jumping and ran over to help Matt up.

"Oops! Sorry Matt, I forgot how messy it was in there."

"It's ok, it's no worse than my closet." _Which is really weird…how determined _is_ this kid to be like me?_ Matt thought to himself. He picked up different articles of clothing and placed them on the bed.

"So, what's your favorite color Zach?"

"Blue."

Matt frowned—it seemed that nothing that he owned was blue. He picked up a t-shirt that looked like it belonged to a toddler.

"Zach, are you sure any of this stuff will even fit you anymore?"

"Um…I know the outfit I wore yesterday fits me and I know this outfit fits me but a lot of these clothes are from when I was really little."

Matt sighed putting down the shirt.

"Well, it looks like we'll be going shopping then. That's fine though, Watari _should_ be back any day now—L just solved his most recent case," Matt said cramming all the clothes back in the closet.

~~~~The Next Day~~~~

Zach stood next to Matt in the hallway, practically jumping with excitement. Watari pulled up to the door and it took Matt everything he had to keep the kid from tackling the old man. Matt picked up Zach and walked up to the car.

"Hi Mister Wammy, is there anything we can do to help?"

"You're offering to help Matt? That's unlike you…what's Mello planning?"

Matt laughed.

"You know me too well Mister Wammy but, as far as I know, right now Mello isn't planning anything. I actually wanted to ask you something."

Zach seemed to have calmed down so Matt set him on the ground.

"Well, if the two of you would like to help, I think that'd be great," Watari said patting Zach on the head, "and then you can ask me what you need to ask, alright Matt?"

"Sounds cool," Matt said going around to the back and opening the trunk. Zach ran and tried to pull one of the bags out—resulting in him falling on his butt on the ground.

"Ow! That hurt!" He complained as Matt helped him up.

"Zach, you gotta grab the bags on the top first, _then_ you can get the ones on the bottom."

"But I'm not tall enough to reach the ones on the top… (2)"

Matt picked a light one off the top and handed it to Zach.

"There, now you can carry that one for Mister Wammy, go ask where he wants you to put it."

Zach ran to Watari and asked where he could put it and then ran into the orphanage. Watari grabbed a couple more and Matt grabbed the last ones and shut the trunk.

Watari led them to his office.

"You can just set them down in here boys, I'll get them later. Now, what did you want to ask me Matt?"

"Well, Zach has maybe two or three outfits that actually fit him and he'll probably outgrow them pretty quickly so I was wondering if you could take us to the mall so I could help him pick out some clothes that fit him and some that he could maybe grow into."

"I don't see why not. How's tomorrow sound?"

Zach jumped up and down and hugged Matt, "thanks Mister Wammy!" He shouted and ran downstairs. Watari chuckled, "he seems to have taken quite a liking to you Mail (3)."

Matt looked at Watari, startled at the sudden use of his real name.

"I do hope that you'll be a good influence on him."

"Yeah…he's a good kid Mister Wammy, I'd hate to see him make some of the mistakes I've made."

Watari nodded knowingly and Matt wondered just how much he knew about him.

"Well, I should go see if L needs anything and perhaps you should go make sure Zach doesn't hurt himself in his excitement."

Matt nodded and left the office.

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**Author's Notes**

1 Matt seems to have some major self-esteem issues.

2 I picture Zach as being really short for his age—maybe to the point he looks like he's five years old. (That may be due to the fact that I'm really short for my age—I'm 18 and I'm still given the kiddie menu at restaurants…)

3 I had Watari use Matt's real name for three reasons; to get his attention, to show that he had something important to say, and to show that he's close enough to Matt to use his real name.


End file.
